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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26330674">Hooke’s Law</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/fiveyaaas/pseuds/fiveyaaas'>fiveyaaas</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Umbrella Academy (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst and Fluff and Smut, Angst and Porn, Complicated Relationships, Exhibitionism, F/M, Porn with Feelings, Post-Season/Series 02, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, technically</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 13:13:06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Explicit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,598</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26330674</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/fiveyaaas/pseuds/fiveyaaas</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>“Her eyes were brazen- a blue so pale it could be mistaken for white. If he was a monster, so was she.”</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Number Five | The Boy/Vanya Hargreeves</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>9</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>122</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Hooke’s Law</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>There are many problems concerning them right now- going back to their actual universe and timeline, keeping quiet and laying low from the Sparrows, and figuring out how they could possibly manage living with only Allison’s Rumor to save them. Five had drained almost all his energy in spatially jumping his remaining family members to the safety. He could take one look at the Sparrow Academy and know who would win. </p><p>Ben as a leader implied many things. One of them being that Ben was not able to be the gentle soul all of them knew him as. Ben would remain loyal to the Academy’s mission because he would have never known that said mission was bullshit. Reginald wouldn’t allow for that a second time around. It was criminal; Ben used to hide out after missions. Right in the time before he had left the first time, Five and Vanya could coax a few words out when they climbed into his bed and talked about books they were reading. Of course, he almost always would allow Klaus-</p><p>Klaus. In the past few days, Five had regularly searched his tired and weary gaze. He did not know how much the others knew about Ben and Klaus. Ben had told him <em> that </em> secret years ago when Ben was trying to get Five to admit his feelings for Vanya. Five hadn’t budged, so it had become a long discussion of Ben trying to explain the way his heart raced and the monsters in his stomach settled just a little when Klaus laughed. Five had wanted to scoff, but he had figured Ben would talk to <em> Vanya </em>about his stomach filling with butterflies rather than soul-sucking tentacle monsters or whatever the fuck if Five refused to listen to him, and Five had wanted to save Vanya the trouble of keeping a straight face for thirty minutes of that shit.</p><p>Five wasn’t necessarily a romantic. Sue him. </p><p>Of course, while Five didn’t have portals to soul-sucking tentacle monsters in his stomach, nor did he think butterflies dissolving to death within the acid confines of a human being’s gastrointestinal system should be a descriptor for loving someone, he never-the-less <em> noticed </em> how Vanya was looking at him. </p><p>She thought he wouldn’t notice, clearly. For her part, she was subtle, but he was a trained assassin. He caught the way her brown eyes hovered over the filled out body (he had had to jump to a store and rob them of men’s clothes promptly after he had gotten them out of the mansion). How she seemed to measure with her eyes how he had reached a height where he was towering over her (not growing while malnourished did him favors, and he wasn’t going to argue with it or consider what it would mean for future temporal jumps, where he could possibly push himself to be an actual senior again in one jump.) She took in the few streaks of grey in his hair, the five o’clock shadow he had not bothered to mess with (only partially out of a vain need to point out that he could indeed grow stubble again) on his face. </p><p>He didn’t mind her looking. </p><p>Well, scratch that. He <em> entirely </em> minded it at this instance. Mainly because she was glowering at him, powering up again like just a week ago. They were alone, driving a car that was Shrödinger’s stolen (was it Allison’s Rumor that made the dealership hand it over or was it that the dealership was giving free cars away that day? One simply can’t tell if one refuses to open Pandora's box of morality there.) He was trying to find a place that was quiet and sparsely populated, currently driving to a cabin off the woods of some shithole Midwestern town with a population of six hundred beady-eyed, cultist Christians that would likely try to take Vanya away to assuage their leader with when he finds out the <em> Handmaid's Tale </em> won’t be enforced under the current administration. </p><p>He would tell her that she needs to calm down, but he isn’t a <em> complete </em> moron.</p><p>“Do I need to pull over?” He tried to keep his voice as calm as possible though he very much wanted to gather energy into his fists. They had set aside the argument out of sheer necessity, but, in doing so, they had let their irritation build up and fester for a week. </p><p>It made it particularly frustrating when another tension that had built up for many years was also starting to emerge after being forced into a lake to drown after a knife had been stabbed to a dining room table of their childhood <strike> prison </strike> home. </p><p>“Were you ever even going to <em> think </em>to look for me?” </p><p>He rolled his eyes, not bothering to stifle his irritation any longer. This argument had been building up a while, and he wasn’t about to back down again. “Yeah, I found you. Don’t you remember? When you then said ‘<em> new timeline, new me </em>’ and fucked off to another family for a bit?” </p><p>She inhaled sharply. “That’s not what I meant.”</p><p>“What <em> did </em> you mean then, Vanya?” He gripped the steering wheel, staring resolutely ahead at the road. He was talented enough at driving that he could actually look at her, but he knew if he did, he’d back off. </p><p>“Well, for one, the FBI…”</p><p>He didn’t know what she was referring to, so he didn’t respond. </p><p>She didn’t seem to care, changing the subject to one she’d clearly thought a lot on since their homecoming. She spoke in a clipped tone, indicating she was trying to make herself sound less upset than she actually was. “When Leonard took me to his cabin. You only went after him when he could have been the cause of the end of the world.” </p><p>His shoulders tightened, pressing his lip into a thin line, not commenting. </p><p>“If he had killed me, so what?” Her voice was starting to hitch then, showing more clearly how affected she was.</p><p>“I have the ability to travel time,” he snapped. “I could have taken care of-“</p><p>“Oh, right, you love taking care of things! Tell me, how quick did you decide to kill me? Did you hesitate even a little bit, Five? Or was I just projecting a friendship that entire time? Was I just convincing myself that you cared-“</p><p>“<em> Enough. </em>”</p><p>She laughed. “Odd, that you made such a huge deal about how you are nothing like Reginald, yet you prioritized the end of the world over me pretty quickly.”</p><p>He clenched his jaw. </p><p>“You’re <em> exactly </em>like him, and you know that. Even if you pride yourself on putting what you love first? Look how quickly you tossed me aside!”</p><p>“You would have died either way,” he reasoned, employing the neutral tone he’d use when he assured his bosses that he’d killed a mark successfully. “You died the first time you caused the apocalypse. I’d at least ensure you weren’t  killing the rest of the world with you.”</p><p>“I wish you <em> had </em>killed me. Maybe you could finally solve your mission of ‘making Daddy proud.’ Oh! Maybe if you’d killed me, you could build up a robot that looks just like me, but with the mannerisms you find fitting for me. Or do you not want them to speak? Is that why you went with-“</p><p>He pulled over, on the side of the road. Nobody was on this path, they hadn’t encountered another car in hours. There weren’t any people within at least a ten-mile radius of any direction, nobody would get hurt (well, except for them.)</p><p>“Get out,” he barked, flashing out of the vehicle, not bothering to use the car door. She followed, slamming the door loudly behind her, stalking towards him. </p><p>“You going to finish the mission, Five?” she snarled. “Going to finally give up on me for good?”</p><p>“I’m not giving up on you,” he spat, which admittedly wasn’t a very upsetting thing to say as far as insults went. “And I <em> didn’t </em>kill you, either get over it or don’t, but you can’t use every one of my mistakes against me for the rest of our lives. I think you’re forgetting you caused multiple apocalypses, Vanya.”</p><p>“I think you’re forgetting that if you hadn’t left me in the first place then I might not have.”</p><p>He scoffed. “If I had taken you with me, we would have both been starving. You want that, Vanya? You want to starve for forty years?” </p><p>How would the apocalypse have happened if Vanya had come with him? He wondered sometimes in the Commission motels. They were dead set on the apocalypse- he knew they would have had one still. </p><p>“That’s not the time I’m talking about,” Vanya gritted out. “After a certain point, resentment fades.”</p><p>“Then which time, Vanya?” </p><p>“He could have killed me, Five. You believed I was ordinary, laying in bed next to a killer. You’d killed someone for robbing a bank when we were children once. But you couldn’t protect me? How was me dying at his hands not what motivated you to look for him? Why was it the apocalypse?”</p><p>He was shaking. His stomach wasn’t filled with butterflies, but it was turning, nausea building in his body as the guilt churned it further. </p><p>“I would’ve gotten it if you had killed me. You’d have saved billions of people. I get that.” </p><p>Her nose was practically touching his. He’d leaned down, not sure if it was to meet her gaze or because he was going to pass out at any second. </p><p>“Why couldn’t you have saved me though?”</p><p>He <em> would </em>have. He would have killed Leonard just for touching Vanya, let alone the other crimes he’d committed against her. But the world would have ended, their family would have died, she would’ve died if he hadn’t prioritized the apocalypse. </p><p>The entire world went up against his reason for wanting to live in it. He had chosen the world. </p><p>He didn’t know if that decision meant he would never be able to have her. If she would leave him behind, and he’d never hear her speak again, as good as dead. </p><p>“The apocalypse had been my priority,” he admitted then. </p><p>“I wish you had killed me.”</p><p>There’s a very basic law in physics, called Hooke’s Law, that measured how much force was necessary to compress or extend a spring. The theory developed the tension formula. It was the same basic idea behind plucking a violin string. One could pull a string, keep pulling and watch it extend impossibly. Eventually, though, it would snap, the tension reaching a point that it had to break because a string can only be pulled so far. </p><p>He snapped, for he had been pulled too far. </p><p>Their lips were on each other. Years had this built up. The drowned thing, something he’d shoved down a lake for fear of it ever being more powerful, something he thought had died when he’d tied blocks to its body by leaving her behind, something he thought would have for sure gone after he’d ensured nothing would find it submerged by not being able to come home to her, something he thought would be long gone by the time the bullet hit the body of his first mark- Handler purring into his ear when he forced his features into neutrality and said he’d killed the man. He knew that his voice had shook, but he told himself if he made himself appear as nonchalant as possible, then no one would know that when he scrubbed his body clean for hours, he was trying to cleanse himself of his sins. If he washed them clean, he’d never be what he feared.</p><p>The drowned thing had survived it all. It had evolved, become a monster like him. Maybe it was being submerged and drowned in the first place that led to it spiraling out of control. </p><p>He pushed her against the hood of the car. The backs of her thighs would be bruised by the morning, but he couldn’t bring himself to care in that instant. “I can’t look at you,” he snarled. “I can’t look at you when you say things like that.” </p><p>Her eyes were brazen- a blue so pale it could be mistaken for white. If he was a monster, so was she. “Then turn me around.”</p><p>He understood what she was saying, and if he was in his right mind in that instant, he would have said this had to wait. </p><p>They waited for too long anyways. </p><p>He flipped her over, pressing her body to the hood of the vehicle so that her back was to him. They’d have time for softness later. This was about relief. It was this or killing every tree in a ten mile radius and possibly themselves in fighting. He’d take this easily. </p><p>He nudged her thighs apart with his knee, pushing her pants only enough down her thighs that he could have access. He unbuttoned the jeans he’d pilfered from the department store when he’d had to change out of the children’s clothes. </p><p>Vanya whimpered, and he stopped moving. “Too much?” </p><p>Vanya pressed back against him, “Keep going.” </p><p>He cleared his throat, suddenly uncertain. </p><p>“Weren’t you trying to teach me a lesson here?” Vanya drawled. Five frowned down at her, somehow more brazen and unhinged than him. </p><p>He wouldn’t argue with it. </p><p>He sunk a finger into her to the knuckle, noting with pleasure that there was no resistance as he did. He wouldn’t have to work her up much at all. Idly, he wondered if it was the arguing that had done it for her, which was an intriguing concept to explore further later. </p><p>“You are acting like a petulant child,” he told her, thumb brushing her clit before pulling away at her moan. He moved his index finger out a second, roughly pushing it back inside of her as he continued in a vaguely conversational tone, “I have been trying to save you all for the past few weeks. With<em> out </em>any breaks. And none of you have listened to me at all.” </p><p>She moved her ass back, more insistently trying to grind against his hand. He pressed a hand down against her, stilling her movement. “Are you going to listen to me now, little Vanya?” </p><p>He didn’t move his fingers until she nodded, mewling the second he got his fingers back inside of her. He took pity, rubbing her clit and keeping his thumb moving there. She was soaked against his fingers; she would be ready for him any second now. </p><p>He moved to kiss her again before he pushed inside of her. He sank his hand into her glossy hair, pulling just enough to hear her mewl again. When he felt her heat around him, he could feel the anger quickly fading from his system. </p><p>“You <em> know </em> I would have protected you, right, Vanya?” He had to know. It terrified him on a level he couldn’t fully examine, not until all of the life-ending problems were solved. Five didn’t think he could manage her assuming that he’d have let her die. </p><p>She didn’t respond, except for groaning. He wasn’t sure if she had not heard what he had said or was incapable of responding or if she actually did think he would have left her alone. He felt something in him break again. It didn’t fill him with a sense of anger or urgency or irritation though. He just felt remorse. She was letting him touch her when she didn’t even trust him. </p><p>“Vanya?” His voice sounded frantic to his own ears, and he knew she would have caught on. </p><p>She turned back, and he let her, pulling away just a little. “Did I do something wrong?” Her voice is so small, so worried she’d disappointed him. </p><p>He doesn’t know how to explain what he’d wanted to hear. He’s never had the ability to speak concisely about how he feels. There has never been a reason to do so. </p><p>He tries though, pressing his forehead to hers and closing his eyes, afraid to look at her if she is about to break him completely. “You know… you know that I wouldn’t have…”</p><p>He clears his throat. He is squeezing his eyes shut now. He was in his late fifties, and he’d never been able to have a conversation about this. He realizes she is running her hand up trembling arms, soothing him. It gives him the courage to say, “Vanya, I wouldn’t have let you get hurt if I had known. I… should have paid better attention, and I’m sorry that I didn’t. Yeah, I prioritized the end of the world, but…”</p><p>He had said goodbye to Delores while Vanya was experiencing another trauma, at the hands of her family that time. He had almost <em> killed </em> Vanya. He didn’t know if he ever could have, would ever bring himself to kill her. It didn’t matter though. Five had left Vanya behind again, and it had led to the end of the world. </p><p>“I know you wouldn’t have let me get hurt if you had known, Five.” Her voice is soft. </p><p>He opened his eyes, glaring at her. “You should be mad at me, furious even.” </p><p>She frowned. “I was. Even without my memories, I couldn’t explain why, but I felt this resentment when I saw you.”</p><p>“Are you not still mad now?” He didn’t know if any answer would satisfy him. </p><p>“I don’t know.” </p><p>“Do you not w-“</p><p>“I want this,” she interrupted, sounding completely certain.</p><p>He ran his hand up her thigh, squeezing it in his palm. </p><p>“How did you get back to this body?” Vanya asked him curiously. </p><p>He glanced up. “I’m still not at the right age.”</p><p>“I figured. Unless you invested in some serious aging cream in the apocalypse.”</p><p>He laughed, startled by the abrupt change of the mood between them. He knew they’d have to have a long conversation later. For now, it could wait. “I’m not sure honestly how it happened. I don’t even know how old this body is.” </p><p>“Does it hurt when it changes like that?” </p><p>Five was pretty certain no one had ever asked him how he felt about the body in this regard. “In some ways?”</p><p>He was suddenly  well aware that they were on the side of the road. “Do you want to go back into the car?”</p><p>She blinked, realizing that they were very haphazardly undressed, but enough that if people saw them, there’d be some questions. She blushed, seeming more like Vanya than ever. In a rather unnecessary use of his powers, he took them to the back seat, her sprawled out on top of him. </p><p>“Is this better than the thirteen year old body?” Vanya asked. </p><p>He nodded, “Much.”</p><p>“Will you…?” She trailed off, biting her lip. </p><p>“Tell me, Vanya,” he urged. </p><p>“Will you keep aging like this? Because if you aged twenty or thirty years in a few weeks…”</p><p>He understood what she was asking then. She thought he could well be dead within the year if he kept aging this way. “I don’t think so, Vanya. It has only happened when I travelled time so far.”</p><p>“Are you going to have to again?”</p><p>He didn’t know, really. “There’s a lot of shit that’s changed in this universe with the Sparrow Academy. If we have to go through time again… I don’t know what will happen.”</p><p>Her voice was impossibly quiet as she asked, “Would you die if you travelled again?”</p><p>He didn’t know. This conversation had brought up many of the problems they had right now. He brushed her hair with his fingers, hoping he sounded reassuring when he told her. “We’ll figure something out.”</p><p>He realized with confusion that Vanya was trying to hug him. It was both uncomfortable because he didn’t know the last time he had been hugged and also because she was lying down on top of him. </p><p>“What are you doing?” Five asked, more rhetorically than anything. Awkwardly, he patted her back. He wondered if they could go back to the angry hate sex because that would be less awkward. </p><p>She nuzzled against his neck, and, okay, fine, the hate sex would have not felt as good as her curled up against him. </p><p>“What is the likelihood of someone driving by?” Vanya asked suddenly. </p><p>He shrugged. “It’ll happen likely, but I have the ability to teleport if it’s really a problem.”</p><p>She seemed to make a decision, pulling off her shoes and pants but not her top. “Now, I’ve imagined our first time many times over the years, and once things have settled down, I expect something much more romantic from you.”</p><p>He scowled up at her. “You came onto me.” </p><p>“That’s beside the point.”</p><p>“Yes, we can have something more romantic than this once things have settled down.” The idiot Five was, he blurted, “I always assumed you’d have wanted to wait until we were married.”</p><p>Vanya’s eyes bugged out, and he realized he had just said that out loud. </p><p>Five was pretty certain he might turn back time for the past, oh, three hours and completely rewind whatever the fuck had just happened here-</p><p>She was kissing him frantically, pulling his jeans down a little more. Neither of them said anything as she sank onto him though she did hiss at the contact. </p><p>Their eyes met, each of them holding in a lot of things they wanted to say probably. </p><p>It’s okay. They had time. </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thank you for reading!</p><p>For any Fiveya fans reading: November 1st through November 7th will be the second round of Fiveya week!!! </p><p>Please excuse my lack of ability to actually link here, but this will give you the full list of rules and instructions https://fivevanya.tumblr.com/post/628015506670206976/hello-everyone-well-be-hosting-round-two-of</p><p>To summarize it, though, Fiveya week is a week to post all kinds of fanart, moodboards, playlists, fanfics, fanvids, etc. for Fiveya!! These can be platonic or romantic as long as Fiveya is the focus of them, and if you’re posting on tumblr, make sure to tag #fiveyaweek and tag @fivevanya in the post! If you’re posting nsfw or possibly triggering content, make sure it is all properly tagged.</p><p>The prompts are as follows:<br/>Day 1: Memories<br/>Day 2: Dancing/ Training<br/>Day 3: Childhood<br/>Day 4: Sparrow Academy AU<br/>Day 5: Guilt<br/>Day 6: Endings/ Beginnings<br/>Day 7: Free Choice!</p><p>Hopefully some of you will participate!! I’m so excited to see some of the new works. I’ll be making a few long one-shots and some multi-chaps!! My goal is to have all of my current WIPs done by that point for anyone reading my incomplete multi-chaps, so those should all be updated pretty soon too!!!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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